The Alchemist with the Ouroboros Tattoo
by S1lv3rT0ngu3
Summary: In 1899 Van Hohenheim commited the ultimate sin to gain a son and in 1900 he did it again. In 1910 Edward and Alphonse Elric repeated their father in order to get their mother and in the process they unlocked an evil within. In 1911 Amestris is faced with two young, promising alchemist but they haven't a clue what evil they brought upon the country.
1. AN: Read before you continue!

**A/N: ****Ok so firstly I'm basing most of my fic off of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, but I will be having elements of the original FMA ****in**** my story. Such as Wrath from the original FMA will be in here but won't be known as Wrath. Also another change I'll have in this is Maes won't die, a similar ****situation**** will happen but someone else will die. Otherwise I should probably tell you that there will be slash. Aka: MALE X MALE, SO IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT DON'T READ IT! Constructive criticism is appreciated but if you're going to complain about characters being OOC then you can stop while you're ahead, several characters personalities will change significantly to better suit the story so once again DON'T LIKE IT DON'T ****READ**** IT! And finally as of right now the parings in this fic will be: Roy x Maes, Greedling x Ed, and Al x Wrath (2003 version).**


	2. Prologue

The Alchemist with the Ouroboros Tattoo: Prologue

**_(Disclaimer: I do not own FMA or FMAB. The FMA manga belongs to Hiromu Arakawa and the FMA and the FMA TV series belongs to Bones!)_**

**_(A/N: Ok so one thing that's always confused me is the fact that Hohenheim can have kids. It was really confusing cause he's a philosopher's stone. So here's my AU of Ed and Al as Homunculus, so enjoy!)_**

**February 3rd, 1899**

**Resembool, Amestris**

"Water, 35 liters. Carbon, 20 kg. Ammonia, 4 liters. Lime, 1.5 kg. Phosphorus, 800 g. Salt, 250 g. Niter, 100 g. Sulphur, 80 g. Fluoride, 7.5 g. Iron, 5 g. Silicone, 3 g. And trace amounts of 15 others elements.", Hohenheim wipes sweat from his brow as he looks up from the transmutation circle "Finally it's almost complete, it's almost time to bring Edward into the world.", He looks at the circle to make sure nothing is out of place, once he sees nothing wrong with it he claps his hands and puts them on the transmutation circle. The circle lights up in red alchemical light as Hohenheim closes his eyes.

After several seconds he opens his eyes again and looks upon a gate. "Welcome once again Alchemist, what brings you hear this time?", Hohenheim turns around and looks upon a creature, no a being. The thing that stood there couldn't be considered anything alive. It had the features of a human, but it's appear was blank. Like a white canvas; no eyes, face, nose, no discernible mouth yet it spoke. "Well Alchemist? I'm waiting.", Hohenheim takes a deep breath and says "I have a bargain Truth.", The being, Truth grins maliciously and says "Interesting, do tell Alchemist.", Hohenheim looks at him in confidence and says "As you know I can't biologically have a son, so I want to create one. Soul and all, in return for giving me a son I will give you five philosopher's and 25% of the souls in my stone.", Truth ponders this for a moment and grins at Hohenheim and says "You've got yourself a deal Alchemist.", Hohenheim smiles as he's pulled into the gate behind him. Images flash by him as he travels through the gate, giving him knowledge of the truth.

Hohenheim groans in pain as he comes back to the real world, feeling the burning sensation of the removal of some of the souls in his stone. He hesitantly opens his eyes bracing for the pain of the sunlight hitting his eyes. However as he looks around he notices it's dark outside and thinks to himself 'God, how long was I out?', He covers his ears as he hears a loud, piercing wail of agony and quickly looks towards the transmutation circle. He looks at where Edward lays and upon seeing him missing a leg he rushes to him and picks him up. As he cradles Edward he thinks to himself 'Damn Truth! There's always a catch isn't there?', he begins to rock his son back and forth and coos the little boy. Edward's cries start to lessen and Hohenheim smiles as he feeds Edward a philosopher's stone. He looks at Edward as the stone heals the wound but doesn't regenerate his limb. Hohenheim sighs and thinks to himself 'Well you can't regenerate something that was never there. We'll have to look into a temporary replacement for automail until you're old enough to have it.' Hohenheim walks out of the warehouse and heads towards his house and tells Edward "We're going home son, soon you'll meet your mother and we'll all be a happy family." He smiles brightly looking forward to a bright future.

**_(A/N: Ok so that's the prologue, honestly I was just kinda winging the explanation of several things but I hoped it turned out ok. But anyways I hope you enjoy this and look forward to the next chapter.) ~ S1lv3rT0ngu3_**


	3. Chapter 1

The Alchemist with the Ouroboros Tattoo: Ch. 1

**_(Disclaimer: I do not own FMA or FMAB. The FMA manga belongs to Hiromu Arakawa and the FMA and the FMA TV series belongs to Bones!)_**

**1910**

**Resembool, Amestris**

"Water, 35 liters. Carbon, 20 kg. Ammonia, 4 liters. Lime, 1.5 kg. Phosphorus, 800 g. Salt, 250 g. Niter, 100 g. Sulphur, 80 g. Fluoride, 7.5 g. Iron, 5 g. Silicone, 3 g. And trace amounts of 15 others elements.", Ed puts the last of the ingredients in the transmutation circle as he and his younger brother, Al take a knife and cut their finger to give the transmutation 'soul data'. They let the blood drop in the other ingredients and get on their knees to perform the transmutation. They put their hands onto the transmutation circle and it begins to light up in a blue light as electricity seems to emit from it but soon it goes wrong. Darkness surrounds the circle as the space around the circle turns a dark purple that seems to emit a wrongness, a premonition that things have turned dire. Al looks at Ed worriedly and says worriedly "Something doesn't feel right.", To their horror they seemingly begin to disintegrate, Ed's leg erupts in a darkness taking away his right arm whilst the darkness consumes Al's whole body. Ed tries valiantly to reach Al, to save him but just as he's close enough to touch him Al disintegrates into nothingness.

Ed looks around in confusion as seeing a white void. Devoid from anything discernible except for a gate and a blank being. "Hello.", The being says and Ed looks at it in confusion and says "Who are you?", The thing responds "I'm so glad you asked. I am called by many names; I am the world, I am the universe, I am god, I am truth, I am all, I am one, and I am also you," It says as it points to Ed. Suddenly the gate behind Ed opens and he's pulled in by numerous black tendrils. "you have dared to knock on the door, now the door is open," Ed screams in terror as the tendrils surround him "quiet child. This is what you want, isn't it? I will show you the truth.", As he's drug in images flash by him at lightspeed, yet he can still comprehend them. He finally understood who and what he is, he's not Edward Elric. He was born, not created he was never alive it was just a façade to deceive the weak-minded humans. As if a gate broke in his mind he remembered everything about his creation, about being a homunculus, about who he is. He's the sin Brashness, compulsive and doesn't think before acting and does things in the moment. He finally understood who he is and what his goal was and is determined to accomplish it no matter what.

And as suddenly as it happened he's back with the being, Truth. Truth asks "How was it?", Ed turns around and walks towards the gate and says "I see, the theory of human transmutation wasn't wrong. It can be done, it's possible," Ed puts his hands on the gate "It's still just missing something! All the answers I need are right here. The truth about human transmutation! Please! You have to show it to me again.", Ed turns towards Truth as it says "I can't do that. I've already shown you all I can for the toll you've paid.", Ed says worriedly "Toll? What toll?", Truth says "This toll," as Ed's arm disintegrates from his body and on Truth's own "surely you knew.", Ed looks down in horror at his missing limb. Ed turns and Truth has suddenly grown and is inches from Ed's face as it says "It's the law of equivalent exchange. Right, young alchemist?"

Once again Ed's back in the real world clutching his arm and screaming in agony. He looks around for Al only to see his clothes and nothing more and says "Dammit! This can't be happening, it can't be! This wasn't supposed to, agh! He's gone! What have I done! Somebody help me, somebody. Please mom, mom please," Ed looks to where his mother is supposed to be and looks at that thing they created in disgust. Whatever is was, it wasn't human. "No, no this is wrong. This isn't, this isn't what we wanted," he cries "Al, Alphonse, Alphonse! Alphonse! This is all my fault, Alphonse! Alphonse no!", Ed cries as he makes a human transmutation circle in his blood and says "No dammit, you won't take him too. Give him back he's my brother. Take my leg, take my arm, take my soul! Anything! You can have them! Just give him back, he's my little brother. He's all I have left!", he claps his hands and completes his transmutation.

Once again he finds himself in front of Truth. It grins maliciously and says "Back so soon alchemist?" Ed glares at it with a fire in his eyes and says "You can have whatever you want, I don't care. Just give me back my little brother!", Truth grins and says "Ok, I'll give you want but in return you must give up half the souls in your stone and most of your humanity. You'll be able to be around humans but will care very little for them and you'll have the urge to kill them? Can you handle that alchemist?", Ed nods at Truth and says "I'll give anything for my brother." Truth grins and says "Good luck alchemist."

Once again Ed is in the real world but this time he sees Al unconscious but unharmed. However his joy is diminished due to the unbearable burning sensation of losing half of the souls in his stone. He screams in unbearable agony as he falls unconscious and Al suddenly wakes up at hearing his brothers scream and looks at him in horror at his missing limb. He thinks to himself 'Granny will know what to do.' he then picks Ed up and brings him to the only person he can trust with this, granny Pinako.

**Some time later**

**Resembool, Amestris**

The two military officers step off of the train and look at the small town "Roy, are you sure this is the right place?", The woman asks. The man, Roy looks at a letter and says "Yes Riza, this is where the letters say they are.", She nods and they head down the street. After a while they come upon a seemingly empty house and Roy knocks. After waiting a minute and having no answer, not even the shuffling of someone coming to the door Roy attempts to open the door. Surprisingly the door's unlocked and swings open into a dark hallway, they enter and Roy calls out "Hello? Anyone here?", All the response they get is the wind. Riza says "It doesn't look like anyone's home, we should probably go.", Roy's about to agree but then he notices a door with light shining under it. "Look," he says "that door has a light under it, maybe someone's in there.", He goes to the door and opens it only to find papers and books scattered everywhere. Upon closer inspection he sees that they're alchemy books and transmutation circles, but when observing the transmutations he realises, to his horror that they're human transmutation circles. He hurriedly leaves the house out the back door and sees an old warehouse and says "Did they really do what I think they did?", He rushes to the warehouse with Riza on his tail and barges in. He covers his mouth to hold back the rising bile in his throat and thinks to himself 'How could two boys accomplish this? Are they even alive?' Riza sets her hand on his shoulder and not looking at that thing and says "We should go Roy, whatever you were looking for isn't here.", He nods his head in agreement and they leave the warehouse. Once again Roy pulls out the letters to see if there might be somewhere else the boys could be, he finally sees a different address and it's also in Resembool. He looks at the address and heads to the house.

Al looks out the window and sees two military officers head to his old house and turns to Ed and says "So the military officers are here like you said they'd be so what do we do?", Ed stands up and paces and says "Well obviously they're gonna find out about us performing human transmutation so we'll tell most of truth that but I think we should lie about us both performing it. Just like with Granny they can't know that we're not human so I'll be the one taking all the blame. Also we should probably have them believe that I lost both my arm and leg in the transmutation." Al looks at Ed curiously and says "Why?", Ed sighs and says "Because, it's not normal to be born without a leg so it's best they think I lost it in the transmutation.", Al nods his head in agreement and says "Ok I'll tell Granny.", Al leaves the room and goes to tell Pinako.

Roy and Riza finally reach the house and stop at the doorstep. Riza says "Are you really sure they're here? They could be long gone for all we know.", Roy has a determined look in his eyes and says "Yes, I'm sure of it.", Roy knocks on the door and hears a dog barking and someone saying "Oh hush Den, don't bark at our guests," an old woman opens the door and says "yes?", Roy barges in, pushing the woman aside as she says "You have no reason to barge in here!", Roy ignores her and beelines to Ed and lifts him up by the shirt and says "We went to your house and saw the floor, what happened! What did you do!" Ed looks down and says "I'm sorry I didn't mean to I just, just wanted to see her smiling again."

"I'm surprised," Roy says "I came to this town looking for a brilliant alchemist but I find a boy skilled enough to do human transmutation. He's more than skilled enough to become a state alchemist but should he choose to he will need to serve the military in times of need. But in return he will gain access to otherwise restricted material." Pinako slams her hand on to the table and says "After those boys came to my house cover in blood I went there to see what happened myself. That thing I saw, whatever it was it wasn't human. Alchemy created that thing and you want to throw these boys into it!? Would you really have them go through that kind of hell again?", Roy says "I'm not forcing you, merely offering the possibility. If you ever hope to get your body back you should move ahead, even if the way is through a river of mud.", He stands up and says to Riza "We're leaving.", She nods in response and as they leave the house Riza asks "Will they be coming?", Roy responds "They will." She looks at him skeptically and says "That boy, I've never seen anyone look so defeated.", Roy grins and says "That's what you saw? No, there was fire in those eyes."

**Some time later**

**Resembool, Amestris**

Ed sits on a hospital like bed with his arm and leg wrapped and Pinako asks "Are you sure about this? There's no going back.", Ed gives her a determined look and says "Yes. How long will the rehabilitation take?", Pinako thinks for a second and says "Three years give or take.", Ed says "I'll do it in one.", Pinako and Windy gasp in surprise at this statement and Pinako says "You'll have yourself spitting blood, you know that?", Ed nods in response and looks at Al reassuringly and says "We'll get through this, I promise.", Al nods his head in response and says "I know we will brother."

**1911**

**Resembool, Amestris**

Ed charges at Al and Al grabs him by the arm and flips him over his shoulder. Ed groans in pain and gets up and says "Looks like I'm fully healed, only one last thing to test.", He claps his hands together and blue electricity emits from his hands as he turns his automail hand into a blade. He grins and says "Good looks like we're ready to head to Central.", Al smirks and says "Soon we'll be there and they'll have no idea what's coming.", Both of them smirk at the knowledge of the change they'll bring to Amestris.


	4. AN: Read before you con (06-12 11:24:30)

**Ok so I know in my first A/N I said that Envy and Ed were gonna be a couple in this but after several weeks of me reading more fanfiction than I'd like to admit I fell in love with Greed (both versions) and want to make him more important in the story cause he doesn't get enough screen time. But that's not the only thing I fell in love with the idea of EdLing so instead of Edvy (Ed X envy) I'm going to have Greedling X Ed so if you don't like that tough luck. But never fear, Greed won't have an interest in Ed until he starts inhabiting Ling's body so no huge age gaps or anything (because like eww) but anyways as of right now that's the only change I'm gonna make so I hope you all enjoy. ~ S1LV3RT0NGU3**


	5. Chapter 2

**1911**

**Train station, Resembool**

**Ed's POV**

Ed and Al walk onto the train station, Ed going to the phone to contact Roy and Al going to get biscuits from a vendor. Ed calls Roy and says "We're here at the train station and boarding the 9:20 train for Central, Sir.", Roy says "Roger that, hey wait a minute. There's one leaving before that, isn't there?", Ed says "Yeah, but we had a detour and got here late and I think it's leaving." Roy says "Get on it.", Ed says "Why does it matter?", Roy says "Take it or go home.", Ed hangs up and runs to the train yelling at Al "Time to go!", Al says "What? Now?", Ed says "Change of plans. Time to go!", They both run to the train as it's leaving and manage to jump on it just in time.

Ed and Al sit on the train and eat their biscuits. Ed takes a bite out of his biscuit and says "I can't seem to figure out this Mustang guy, he's got to have ulterior motives but I just can't seem to figure them out, what do you think Al?", Al thinks for a moment and says "Well like anyone in a government position he's looking for power so maybe he'll get recognition for recommending the youngest soon to be state alchemist? But otherwise I'm not sure, maybe he knew our father. Hmm we'll have to think on that."

A couple minutes later an older man in a plain brown coat comes running over and says "He's right he is small.", That seems to trigger something in Ed and he jumps up yelling "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A RUNT SO TINY HE CAN ONLY BE SEEN BY A MAGNIFYING GLASS YOU JERK!", The man backs away wearily from Ed and says "Relax kid, the colonel said it, I was just repeating it.", Suddenly two men stand up and point a gun at the man as the man also pulls out a gun. The guy looks around nervously as the man behind him hits him in the back of the head with the butt of his gun. The guy gets knocked out and the other passengers notice and stand up and look to see what's happening, they look nervously at the two men and one of them says "No heroes today. Everyone shut up and put your hands over your head or say hello to a bullet." Ed and Al glance at each other and silently agree not to do anything as to not put the passengers in danger.

Several minutes later the two men walk back over to Ed and Al and start harassing a little girl and her mother, Ed grits his teeth and yells and points behind the two men. They look behind them and while they're distracted Ed knees one of them in the face whilst Al knocks the other one out by hitting him over the head. They grin at each other but a random passenger says "You dumb kid, what are we supposed to do now? Don't you think they'll notice that two of their men have gone missing? And what will happen to us then? They'll want retribution, we'd of been safe if you'd have cooperated until we got to Central.", Several other passengers voice their agreements as Al asks "What do we do next?", Ed says "Well I didn't plan that far.", One of the men they knocked out awakens and points his gun at the little girl but before he can do anything Al stomps on his back causing the man to go down again. Ed then picks up the gun ands asks the girl and mother "Are you guys ok?, They tell him yes and Ed looks around at all the nervous passengers. Ed and Al share a glance and decide to do something, they won't let any innocent bystanders be harmed. Ed says to Al "Well, we better get started.", As they go to the the compartment they hear someone say "Wait!", They turn around and see the man from before scooting towards them tied up. They stop to untie him and the man says "How embarrassing, who are you guys? Freelancers?", Ed rolls his eyes at the human's question and says "Just two old-fashioned alchemists.", The man says "Well you don't say. I'm Falman a State Warrant Officer.", Ed looks at the man, Falman in shock and says "A soldier huh? Sure don't look like one.", The man chuckles and says "Well yeah there's a reason for that. We've got a special passenger on board, the front car kind.", Ed gasps and this and says "So that's why these guys are here.", Falman turns to face Ed slightly and nods his head in confirmation. Ed scowls and mutters to himself "And they decided to drag us down with them.", He stands up and says to Al "I'm going up top to surprise them. You take them from down below to distract them won't ya?", Al grins at him and says "Of course I can handle them no problem.", Ed smirks and says "I know you can.", They both head off in their respective directions to ambush the enemy.

**Al's POV**

As Al heads to the next car he grins mischievously and says to himself "This is gonna be so much fun, humans are so stupid and gullible.", He opens the car door and all the men turn to him. They threaten to open fire on him but he just grins and forms his arm into a shield*****. The men open fire on him and he keeps deflecting the bullets back at them, making sure to hit fatal spots. He didn't think there was a point in sparing them, they'd just hurt or kill innocent bystanders. He may not necessarily like humans as a general rule but he never saw the point in senseless killing, it just caused more problems than it solved. After making sure all the men were dead he headed to the next compartment wondering what his brother was up to.

**Ed's POV**

"Shit, shit, shit," Ed yelled into the howling wind "Why'd I think this was a good idea.", He ducks under an incoming branch, not wanting his head taken off. He looks up towards the front of the train and sighs at seeing how many cars away he was from the engine room. Despite this he steels himself and starts running towards the front of the train. With his years of training and more recently acquired agility and dexterity from unlocking his skills as a homunculus he makes it to the front of the train without breaking a sweat. He then lays in his stomach and looks into the window to see what's going on. He sees that there are two guards watching the two workers so he begins to try and gets one of the guards attention. After a minute or so he finally manages and punches the guard and jumps into the car. While the other guard was busy trying to shoot Ed the two workers come up behind him and knock him out. The workers then turn to Ed and give their thanks. Ed waves them off and leaves to meet up with Al.

After several minutes later he comes across Al finishing off some men and double checking to make sure that they're dead. Ed rolls his eyes at this and says "Really Al?" Al turn and glares at Ed then harrumphs and says "You know how I feel about innocent bystanders getting killed, whether they're human or not they don't deserve to be killed.", Ed sighs and shakes his head and says "Whatever Al, let's just beat up this bastard so we can go back to relaxing.", Al rolls his eyes and they enter the car with the leader of the so-called "terrorist" group. Ed goes up to the man and demands for him to surrender (because that looks a lot better than instantly beating the shit out of him Ed thinks to himself) despite this the man refuses and so Ed starts to fight with him. They eventually lock their hands together and try to push each other back, and Ed notices that he also has an automail arm. He doesn't think much of it but the man notices that they both have an automail arm and starts droning on and on about how they are similar and the military will throw Ed out the second he doesn't prove useful. Ed just rolls his eyes at this (because I mean he already knew this, he didn't need Blackbeard over here to try and give him a life lesson, thank you very much) and in response breaks the man's automail.

After a while the train gets to Central and Ed and Al drag the tied up man out of the train. Upon getting onto the platform the brothers notice that Mustang is waiting for them so Ed picks up the guy and tosses him at Mustang's feet. He sneers at the man and says "Well Mustang, did we prove ourselves capable of handling things like this?", Ed raises his eyebrow in mild irritation and Mustang says "Yes, you two did a good job. But where are his subordinates? Are they unconscious?", Al snickers slightly and says "No, they're dead," Mustang and Riza look at Al in shock* as he continues "They would've just continued doing what they were doing and would've try to hurt innocent people. There's no reason for pointless death so I went ahead and stopped it at its source. Nothing more, nothing less." Mustang and Riza shake themselves out of their stupor to grab and arrest the man. But unbeknownst to them while they were distracted the man managed to pull out a knife, so when Mustang steps closer he attempts to stab him. Luckily for Mustang he notices the knife before it could hit him so he steps back out of range of the swipe at him. He then glares at the man and snaps his fingers at him, flames seemingly spring from the glove and hit the man full on. The man seemingly is finished but after the flames die down he is still intact, but singed. Mustang tells some nearby officers to take the man away as he leads the Elric brothers to somewhere they can stay and study until the State Alchemist exam.

**(A/N: Ok so, so far this fic has been following the original FMA plotline but I don't want Ed and Al to meet Nina and co until after they've gotten their State Alchemist license so they're just gonna be studying in a hotel or something instead. It's not gonna really mention it cause I'm just gonna timeskip to the exams but I don't want you to be confused so I'm stating that here. Anyways back to the story.****Side note: The * where Al forms his arm into metal is part of his power as a homunculus, it's kinda like Envy or Wrath's (2003) power.****Another side note The * where Roy and Riza look shocked is a bit OOC but imagine you're in their situation where you heard two 12 year olds killed a bunch of people, terrorist or not) ~ S1LV3RT0NGU3**

**Some time later**

**Central, Amestris**

**Ed's POV**

'Today is the day.', Ed thinks to himself as he and Al walk into Central Command. 'Today decides whether or not Al and I can become State Alchemist.', They head to the designated testing room and sit down in the corner away from the other applicants. They ignore the hateful stares they get from the other applicants because of children being allowed to apply for a state alchemist license and wait for the written exam to begin. After about fifteen minutes the tester stands up and hands out the papers and walks back to the front of the room. The tester makes a speech about no cheating and such then tells the applicants that they have three hours to complete the exam and that they may begin. Three hours later Ed and Al leave the exam room and walk towards their hotel room. On the way there Ed bemoans the fact that the exam was child's play and Al hits him on the head and says "Oh hush brother, we're prodigies when it comes to alchemy. Of course it'd be easy for us, I just wish they would've let us leave as soon as we finished our exam. Sitting there for an hour and a half with nothing to do was so mind numbingly boring.", Ed chuckles slightly and says "Well at least it wasn't two whole hours for you.", Al rolls his eyes and they finally reach the hotel and prepare for the practical exam and interview that'll be tomorrow.

**The next day**

**Central, Amestris**

**Ed's POV**

The two brothers get up very early in the morning to iron out all the details and lies to tell the interrogators. Al's story doesn't need much change other than not mentioning the transmutation of their mother and obviously his status as a homunculus, Ed's is a bit trickier; however. They had to come up with a plausible story as to how Ed lost his arm. Eventually they decide to say that Ed lost his arm during the Ishvalan conflict seeing as Resembool was only a thirty minute train from Ishval. With their story ironed out they get ready and head to Central Command, upon their arrival they are ushered to a large room with other applicants where a door sits on the far wall. Ed suspects this is where they will be interrogated and the practical exam is going to be taken place but he can't be too sure. Some time later a man in a military uniform comes out of the room and starts calling names in alphabetical order to come into the room. Eventually they get to the E's and Al's name is called and he enters the room.

**Al's POV**

Upon entering the first thing he notices is a golden three legged stool and he looks skeptically at it, if someone were to sit in it they shouldn't be able to keep it upright. Suddenly a light shines down on a middle aged man and he says in a loud authoritarian like voice "Take a seat. Alchemy is the science of balance, if you have the gift it will not refuse you." Al walks towards it confidently and takes a seat. The man, whom upon further inspection Al realises is the fuhrer, looks at him impressed and says "Good state alchemists should show no fear. Now, why do you wish to serve the military?" Al looks him in the eye and says "I have someone I want to protect, I'll take the good with the bad. It's worth it all for him." The fuhrer smiles and motions for Al to stand. He does so and someone move the chair away and the fuhrer says "Now Alphonse Elric show us that you have what it takes to be a state alchemist." Al smirks and gets on his hands and knees and claps his hands and slams them onto the floor. Blue light and electricity surround Al as two iron guards for his arm form. The light and electricity fade and Al grabs the guards and attaches one to each arm and claps his hands and lays one hand on each guard. They light up and change into blades. The inspectors watch on impressed and the fuhrer says "You may go Alphonse Elric, your results will be in, in a week." Al understanding the obvious dismissal exits the room and looks at Ed and gives him a thumbs up.

**Ed's POV**

Ed enters the room and sits in the chair he sees and waits for the fuhrer to say something. Ed is asked the same question Al was and he gives the same honest answer. The fuhrer nods and motions for him to stand and begin his transmutation. Ed gets on his knees and claps his hands and slams them to the ground. He stands up as a spear surrounded by blue light and electricity forms from the ground. The inspectors nod in approval and the fuhrer says "You may go Edward Elric, your results will be in, in a week." Ed nods his head and leaves then goes and meets up with Al so they can head back to the hotel.

**One week later**

**Central, Amestris**

**Ed's POV**

Ed and Al wait in Lieutenant Colonel Mustang's office for their exam results. Mustang pulls out two folders and hands one to each of them and says "These are the exam results, boys both of you have passed and earned the title of youngest state alchemist in history." Ed and Al grin at each other and skim through the papers. Al then looks at it curiously and says "What's this second name about?" Mustang smirks and says "Every state alchemist is given a second name by the fuhrer and he seemed to be quite ironic in his naming this year. Alphonse you were dubbed The Iron-Smith alchemist and Edward you were dubbed The Fullmetal alchemist." The boys look at each other and simultaneously think 'This is gonna be fun.'


	6. Chapter 3

**(Disclaimer: I do not own FMA or FMAB. The FMA manga belongs to Hiromu Arakawa and the FMA and the FMA TV series belongs to Bones!)(Disclaimer: I do not own FMA or FMAB. The FMA manga belongs to Hiromu Arakawa and the FMA and the FMA TV series belongs to Bones!)**

**1914**

**Somewhere in the desert**

**Ed's POV**

"Ugh," groans Ed "Why does the desert have to be so damn hot!?" Al sighs at his brother and says "What do you expect Ed? It's the fucking desert for Christ's sake." Ed grumbles and says "I know that but I don't have to like it, besides shouldn't you be hot too? I mean your jacket is black after all." Al rolls his eyes and says "Yes I am hot but unlike you I'm not gonna bitch and whine about it all the way to Liore." Ed flips Al off and after a while of walking they finally reach Liore.

**Liore, Amestris**

**Ed's POV**

Upon arriving to Liore they see a fountain and immediately dash towards it in hopes of getting water. However, upon closer inspection it's not filled with water but a reddish liquid of some sort. Ed takes the cup and fills it with liquid and says "Is this blood?" Al sniffs it and says "More like blood red wine." Suddenly they're both lifted up by their coats and an older man says "Hey! You know you're not allowed that stuff."

The older man laughs and says "Travellers, that makes sense! I thought you were one of the kids trying to take a sip!" Ed resists the urge to roll his eyes and says "A fountain full of red wine, huh. This town must be pretty loaded." The man laughs again and says "We do alright, oh! I almost forgot." He turns on a radio and some sort of religious broadcast starts playing. Ed makes a weird face and says "Freaky." Al nods his head in agreement and says "Seems like some sort of religious broadcast of some sort." The man puts his hands on his hips and says "You guys are wearing jackets in the desert and you call us freaks," the man looks between Ed and Al and says "Who are you guys anyways? Some kind of street performers?" Ed spits out his drink in shock and says "What gave you that idea!?" The man says "Well you've got to have some reason to travel out to the desert." Ed sighs and says we're just looking for something, but who is this guy on the radio anyways?" The man responds "Why that's Father Cornello." Ed says "Never heard of him." The man looks at him in shock and says "you've never heard of the great Father Cornello!?!" Several people around Ed and Al start talking about his miracles and Ed suddenly stands up and says "I just remembered we have places to be, come on Al." Al stands up and accidentally knocks over the radio and breaks it and the man says "What have you done! That's what you get for not paying attention." Al says "Calm down I can fix it." The man says "How it's in a million pieces?" Al rolls his eyes at the uneducated human and says "Just watch." He claps his hands together and puts them near the radio and the radio mends itself together and starts playing the broadcast again. The man looks in shock and says "This is a real land of prophets, isn't it? Your friend can perform miracles like Father Cornello." Ed sighs and says "It's not miracles it's alchemy." The people around Ed and Al go on about not having alchemist around Liore and one man says "I fix things for a living, let me know if you need work." A woman at the bar chuckles and says "He doesn't need a job, they're the Elric brothers. The Fullmetal and Iron-Smith Alchemist, they've become quite famous around East City." The men surround Al and ask a bunch of questions thinking he's the Fullmetal Alchemist but Al says "I'm not the Fullmetal Alchemist, it's my brother Ed. The men look at Ed and one of them says "That shorty over there?" Ed growls and yells "Shorty! Could a shorty do this!?! Want to call me a half-pint bean sprout midget! I'm still growing you backwater desert idiots!" A woman with long brown hair and pink bangs walks over and says "Looks like there's plenty of excitement going on here today." Ed stops his rant and the woman says "Don't let me stop your fun, I'm Rose by the way." Ed and Al introduce themselves and the man says to Rose "Are you done with shopping for your offerings today?" She nods her head and the man says "Maybe you can take these boys to the church they say they're looking for something, maybe Father Cornello can help them." Ed says "We'd like that." Rose nods and they head to the church.

They arrive to the church and head inside and come to an altar room and Ed and Al sit down. Rose then begins cleaning the altar and Ed says "So if you pray and clean the altar enough this 'god' Leto will bring the dead back to life?" She smiles slightly and says "Something like that." Ed sighs at the ignorant humans not knowing better and says "Water, 35 liters. Carbon, 20 kg. Ammonia, 4 liters. Lime, 1.5 kg. Phosphorus, 800 g. Salt, 250 g. Niter, 100 g. Sulphur, 80 g. Fluoride, 7.5 g. Iron, 5 g. Silicone, 3 g. And trace amounts of 15 other elements." Rose looks at Ed confused and asks "What's that?" Ed responds "The composition of the human body and even though science has given us the full composition of the human body there's never been a successful attempt of bringing a human back to life even after centuries of research, so what makes you think that hack job priest can do it? And to boot all those ingredients can be bought on a child's allowance, humans are made so cheaply there's no magic to it." Rose yells angrily "Well if there's no magic to it why don't you do it!" Ed stands up and walks to the altar and says "It's only a matter of time, science is the answer to everything. If I were you I'd put down the scriptures and pick up an alchemy book. We're the closest things to gods there are." Rose glares at Ed and says "You're not a god" Ed responds "And neither is the sun, it's just a mass of hydrogen and get close to it like Cornello says and all you'll do is burn." Al sighs from the doorway and mutters "Typical Ed putting his cynicism on someone else." He feels something against the back of his head and a man behind him says "Don't worry your brother will be joining you soon." He shoots Al in the back of the head and he falls to the ground. Ed and Rose look that direction and Rose covers her mouth in horror. Ed growls and says angrily "Get out of here Rose." she looks petrified and says "W-what about you? You've got to get out of here too." He shakes his head and says you don't want to see what I do when I'm angry." She looks worried but runs away in terror. The man smirks and says "Sending away your only witness, how heroic." Ed snarls and says "Want to give me your name before I have to kill you?" The man laughs and says "I doubt that'll happen but I'll humour you kid, it's Cray now remember that as I kill yo-" A hand busts through his chest from behind and he turns his head in horror and sees Al's face reforming and Al says "How about you remember the name Confidence as you die." Al rips out Cray's heart and he falls to the floor dead and Al crushes his heart. Ed says "You good Al?" Al rolls his eyes and says "Yeah that just hurt like a bitch, let's just find Cornello I'm sick of this place." They go downstairs and find Rose standing on this platform thing with Cornello. Cornello says "State alchemists, brutal enforcers I knew you'd come here." Ed yells "You knew we'd come for the stone!" Cornello holds up his and and shows off a ring with a red stone on it and says "You mean this? Yes the mythical Philosopher's stone." Ed smirks greedily and says "It's finally ours. Hand over the stone Cornello and we won't tell the people what you've been doing!" Cornello responds, "You mean bringing peace and prosperity? No one wants that, do we Rose?" She looks at Ed and Al terrified and Al yells "Don't believe him! He's just a con man!" Cornello says "Con man? Would a con man bring life back to a desolate town? They were hungry and I gave them bread, they were thirsty and I gave them water, I even gave them money. I became a prophet to them, why would the military want to destroy that?" Ed yells "I don't give a fuck about what the military wants! We want the stone for ourselves!" Rose gasps and says "So that's what this is about! You only care about yourselves, what about us? You're two selfish boys willing to destroy our happiness for yourselves!" Cornello says "Good girl, you've seen the lies the selfish will weave." Al says "Call us selfish all you want but that doesn't change the fact that we're getting that stone even if we have to pry it out of your cold, dead hands." Cornello laughs maniacally and says "See Rose these are the state alchemist and their willingness to get whatever they want well I won't let them!" His ring flashes red and the ground turns to sand and he says "With the ground sand you can't draw transmutation circles! So let's see if you can handle my pets without your precious alchemy!" He pulls a switch and a chimaera of a lion and a lizard comes out and charges them. Ed smirks and claps his hands and puts them on the ground and creates a spear whilst Al creates a sword. Cornello looks on in shock and says "H-how did you do that without a transmutation circle!?!" Ed ignores him and attacks the chimaera. Cornello growls and throws his bird and changes it into a chimaera as he says "Bring me his head my pet!" The bird flies to Ed but I taken down by Al's kick and Al says "You made a grave mistake forgetting about me, ever wonder why your lackey Cray never came back?" Cornello looks in fear and frantically tries to summon Cray but receives no response. Al chuckles menacingly and says "He should of shot Ed first." The bird chimaera gets up and tries to attack Al but he grabs it by its neck and and breaks it easily. Cornello steps back in a mixture of shock and horror "W-what are you?" The lion-lizard chimaera is thrown next to the bird chimaera with a broken jaw and Ed stands next to Al and rips off his coat revealing his automail and says "We're the Elric brothers and we haven't even gotten started yet."

**(A/N: Cliffhanger ending I know but I wanted to get this chapter out before I went to bed and as an apology I should be getting the next chapter soon but I make no promises because work and school have been kicking my ass recently plus I don't have internet currently and that's making it hard to update but hopefully I'll be getting internet next month, but anyways enjoy this chapter) ~ S1LV3RT0NGU3**


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